Tourist Drive 12 is located in southwestern Sydney and the NSW Southern Highlands. It mostly follows the old Hume Highway corridor (some of which is now SR89) that was bypassed some years ago, taking in numerous historically significant areas along its route.

The former Hume Highway alignment is between Prestons and Alpine near Mittagong. However there is a deviation between Picton and Bargo, with the route passing through the town of Thirlmere instead of following the old Hume Hwy route.

The Hume Highway section of the route has a very big history, which goes back to the the first road south from Sydney, known as the Great South Road, which was formed in the 1800s. Some sections of the route still utilise the concrete pavement laid in the 1920s and 30s.

Along TD12, you can access old alignments of Old South Road and other former Hume Highway alignments, these include:

Ironbark Avenue Camden

Cawdor Road from Camden to Picton

Old Razorback Road between Cawdor near Camden and Picton

Great Southern Road at Bargo

Old Southern Road at Yerrinbool

Old South Road at Alpine

History:

1914: Sydney-Melbourne road (Great South Road) is declared a main road

1928: Sections of Great South Road renamed to Hume Highway

1940: Hume Highway is (mostly) paved

1950s: In 1952, a group of citizens met and formed a committee under Lt-General Sir Frank Berryman to create a national memorial to servicemen by using trees and shrubs as living memorials. The NSW Premier, J J Cahill, officially launched the scheme on 9 December 1953. The Remembrance Driveway project as it was called started on 5 February 1954, when trees were planted at either end of the Driveway at the War Memorial, Canberra, and in Macquarie Place, Sydney, by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. By June 1959, 10,000 trees had been planted. Since then, planting of trees in avenues or groves has continued. When the M5 Motorway replaced the Hume Highway (and also Camden Valley Way) south of Liverpool, it became the focus for planting trees and shrubs in remembrance. 1

1959: an experiment using advisory speed signs on curves on the Hume Highway between Camden and Berrima was successful and was extended to other roads. 1

1970s: Construction of high standard 4 lane freeway between Campbelltown and Prestons, DMR also built another high standard 4 lane road between Bargo and Alpine (near Mittagong)

1973: Opening of the 1km long Macarthur Bridge over the Nepean River at Elderslie and Camden

26 October 1973: A six mile (9.7 km) section of the South Western Freeway (formerly F5, now Hume Hwy (Metroad 5)) from Cross Roads to Raby Road opened. 1

1974: South Western Freeway extended to Narellan Road near Campbelltown.

May 1977: South Western Freeway between Yanderra and Alpine opens to traffic. SR89 designation given to the route when the Hume Highway was moved to the South Western Freeway

December 2005: work was completed to upgrade Camden Valley Way to four lanes between the M7 interchange and Bernera Road, Prestons 1

2006: upgrade at the intersection of Camden Valley Way and Raby Road at Catherine Field 1

Old Northern Road Approach:
Approaching the intersection of Camden Valley Way and Old Northern Road (former Metroad 9 and SR69) at Narellan, December 2005.
This sign has since been removed, with the intersection of the Northern Road no longer dog-legging through Narellan. Click here for a photo from December 2005 of the previous sign.